Escaping Fate
by Krawrz
Summary: Years after saving Skyrim from Alduin, Harkon and Miraak, Katya is living a peaceful life with her new family. Until a shade of the past makes her question her grip on reality while offering vague warnings of a Daedric Prince seeking to finally claim his champion. Is it possible that even The Last Dragonborn cannot escape Fate?


_**Prologue**_

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Katya stood at the top of a spire, built amidst a sea of dirty, green liquid. Acid came to her mind when she looked into it's depths. Slick tendrils waved around lazily, piercing the calm surface. When she looked at the sky, she saw a similar sight. An unnerving green void acting as the sky with tendrils reaching out from black tears. Stacks of featureless books scraped against the sky fearless of it's emptiness. There were books piled on the platform with her and arches rose forming delicate, intricate patterns in ugly stone. The air was heavy and suffocated her senses. The Last Dragonborn knew she walked here before a long time ago, but she couldn't remember anything. Familiar, yet beyond the edges of her mind.

It didn't matter, this place disgusted and unnerved her and she wanted no part of it.

"Get used to this, you'll be seeing this a lot more often soon enough." A voice, silky and cold, it's owner seemed to read her thoughts.

She whipped around to face the stranger. Standing nonchalantly, was a man robed in clothing that matched the color of the acid and skies and covering his face was a bronze mask resembling tendrils. A odd sense of kinship came over the Dragonborn, like reuniting with a long-lost sibling. She had seen him somewhere before, but couldn't place him. "Who are you? Where am I?" She asked, something inside her feared the answers.

"Dreams are fickle things, some things you remember, others you forget." He sighed, walking towards her. A part of her soul recognized him, a desperate hope thrown and lost in the depths of the sickly waters. Another screamed for her to flee, escape from this threat. The masked man tilted his head seemingly in response to her inner conflict which did little to comfort Katya.

He was getting closer, Katya took a step back only for her foot to touch nothing, but empty air. Too slow to react, she began falling backwards into the acid sea below when a gloved hand caught her's. The man pulled her close to his chest. Katya immediately felt her face heat up in embarrassment however, before she could stammer a pitiful thanks he touched his index finger to her forehead.

In that moment, everything came flooding back to the Dragonborn. This was apocrypha, the spire where she had faced Miraak and where Hermaeus Mora claimed a new champion. The memories that were forgotten in the dreamy haze were clear again. Without another moment of hesitation, she pulled away from the man she now recalled as Miraak the First Dragonborn and reached for her flame-touched, nordic blade. Her other hand lit up in a spark of lightning.

"You're dead." She stated. _He isn't real. This is a dream. _Despite her certainty of this dream, the words of a shout lay ready in her throat.

Miraak laughed without a trace of humor unfazed by her hostility. "I am indeed dead. But that doesn't make me any less real. You absorbed my soul when Hermaeus Mora saw fit to declare you his new pet, remember?"

Of course Katya remembered, he forced her into fighting by threatening the people of Solstheim. He wanted to use her soul to escape Mora's realm. It backfired when the Last Dragonborn got the upper hand thanks to a few new tricks.

"I didn't force you into anything, Dragonborn." He said, again reading her thoughts. "You only won because Hermaeus Mora sought to replace me. Nonetheless, I'm still away from this hell."

"What do you mean?" Katya watched his every move through wary blue eyes.

"You freed me." Miraak hardly contained his irritation at the question. "Although I just traded one cage for another. At least this one has a pleasing lack of tentacles." He gestured a gloved hand at where he was standing. "Well, _Usually_.Unfortunately, that may end soon."

Katya lowered her sword in genuine confusion. She understood plainly now this apocrypha is undoubtedly a part of a dream, only Miraak being the questionable piece, yet she could tell there was little the First Dragonborn can actually accomplish. Miraak was a fool to think she will give in the Hermaeus Mora's temptations, she will not become a Deadric Prince's pawn.

Another humorless bark of laughter that irritated Katya. "Do you honestly think you have a choice? Don't you think it's odd you haven't even caught a wisp of the Lord of Fate since our battle?" Miraak crossed his arms and turned away from her, staring into the ocean of corrosive water. "What is he waiting for?" He whispered just loud enough for Katya to hear the trace of sincere apprehension in his typically arrogant voice.

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_**AN: This is just the prologue, so it's short. Just curious if people would be interested in reading something like this. I may write more, but don't hold out any hope. I still have other stories to get around to. one day though. I really like this plot though, so I may just write some anyway even if people don't like it if only to practice my writing.**_

_**Anyways leave your opinions and reviews, etc. Elder Scrolls belongs to Bethesda and Zenimax. Definitely getting ESO for the Xboxone.**_


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